Lot n° 135
Estimation :
4000 - 6000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 6 698EUR
Diamonds of the Crown of France. 1887. Photograph Berthaud. - Lot 135
Diamonds of the Crown of France. 1887. Photograph Berthaud.
9, rue Cadet, Paris.
Portfolio in blue and brown fabric with corners (loose flaps, worn binding), titled and monogrammed in gilded letters on the first plate, containing 25 prints on albumen paper, including two panoramas (double plates) and one in 3 copies, mounted on cardboard with captions and printed information.
Formats: from 25 x 18 to 48 x 23 cm
Attached:
- Two catalogues of the sale of Thursday, May 12, 1887, Diamonds, pearls and stones from the collection known as the crown jewels, of different
formats - Three purchase slips of the sale of May 12, 1887 at the head of the Ministry of Finance, as well as a duplicate.
The "Crown Diamonds" include an exceptional collection of jewellery, gems, precious stones and pearls reconstituted after the great revolutionary dispersions by the imperial and royal rulers who succeeded each other at the head of France between 1804 and 1870.
Become useless or even politically dangerous because of the advent of the Republic, which by nature attaches them to the personalization of political power, a process of expertise for the sale of Crown diamonds was initiated in 1882. Two lines motivate this process, on the one hand the political question, punctuated by a long legislative process between 1886 and 1887, and on the other hand the question of the use of the funds from the proceeds of the sale.
In 1887, in order to preserve the heritage, a commission decided to install some of the rooms, including the Regent at the Louvre, in the Galerie d'Apollon. Most of the other pieces were auctioned on May 12 and 13, 1887, a sale that brought in 6,864,050 gold francs and for which the documents we are presenting are an exceptional testimony.
A third set, mostly gems, are assigned to study at the École des Mines Paris.
As a result of this dispersion, Empress Eugenie's crown and tiara joined the Louvre Museum in 1988
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